CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The Island Storm has set its internal targets for the upcoming off-season.
Five guards, a centre and a forward comprise the squad’s protected list released Friday morning by the National Basketball League (NBL) of Canada. The list is headlined by the league’s top Canadian in Guillaume Boucard.
“I’d love to have all seven of those guys back,” head coach Tim Kendrick said.
The league has permitted teams to protect seven players this year – an increase of one player from last year’s six. Teams can offer other teams’ protected players a contract but the team holding the player’s rights has the option of matching the contract within 48 hours. Players rights are held until the end of the 2019-20 regular season.
The Storm’s list also includes centre Terrell Carter II, point guard Jonathan Loyd plus guards Alex Campbell, Malik Story, Tyree White and Robbie Robinson. Boucard and Campbell were both all-Canadians and teams must have five Canadians on their 12-man roster for the upcoming season.
Boucard was the team’s second-leading scorer at 19.7 points per game, behind only Sampson Carter’s 21.9. Boucard and a second-round pick in 2019 were acquired from the St. John’s Edge for forward Brad States in January.
Former UPEI Panther Tyler Scott as well as Kyle Arseneault and Daniel Gordon were the Storm’s other Canadians last season.
“We have the two Canadians protected we think we’re definitely our top two Canadians,” Kendrick said.
White and Robinson were with the team all of last season while Loyd, Carter II and Story were each late-season additions. Carter II provided size inside, Loyd contributed steady play at the point and Story is a shooter/scorer with size.
“It comes down to decisions sometimes,” Kendrick said. “We just felt we couldn't use another spot on one of our Canadians.”
The last-place Storm missed the playoffs last season after going 12-28. It won two of its first three games but couldn’t recover from dropping 10 straight games to fall to 2-11. It also had losing streaks of seven and four games and went 1-19 away from the Eastlink Centre.
Kendrick is in Florida this weekend for a combine. He also is heading to combines later this summer in New Jersey and Los Angeles in an attempt to find more talent for next year’s squad.
Need to know
A look at the seven players on the Island Storm’s protected list.
GP Reb./G Assists/G Pts./G
F Guillaume Boucard 27 8.5 4.7 19.7
G Alex Campbell 38 6.6 3.4 13.3
G Malik Story 17 3.5 1.4 13.2
G Tyree White 40 7.7 4.8 12.6
G Robbie Robinson 33 4.6 1.2 12.2
PG Jonathan Loyd 13 3.5 4.3 11.7
C Terrell Carter II 21 6.3 1 9.8
Protected lists
Cape Breton Highlanders
Bruce Massey
Jamal Reynolds
Aaron Redpath
Sam Muldrow
Charles Strowbrige
Chris Johnson
Jabari Craig
Sudbury Five
Braylon Rayson
Maurice Jones Sr.
Jaylen Bland
Grandy Glaze
Travis Releford
Cory Dixon
Mamadou Gueye
Moncton Magic
Trey Kell
Billy White
Marcus Lewis
Wayne McCullough
Gentrey Thomas
Denzell Taylor
Nick Evans
Saint John Riptide
TJ Maston
Bryce Washington
Frank Bartley
Jeremiah Mordi
Kemy Osse
Marvin Binney
Randy Phillips
Windsor Express
Juan Pattillo
Ryan Anderson
Juwan Howard Jr.
Chris Jones
Ty Walker
Tyrrel Tate
Daniel Dooley
St. John's Edge
Junior Cadougan
Kyle Johnson
Murphy Burnatowski
Dez Lee
Jarryn Skeete
Russell Byrd
Shaquille Keith
Halifax Hurricanes
Mike Poole
Terry Thomas
Rhamel Brown
Joel Kindred
Chadrack Lufile
Malcolm Duvivier
Jordan Washington
KW Titans
Akeem Ellis
Derek Hall
Ashton Smith
Justin Strings
Damon Lynn
Ed Horton
Joel Friesen
London Lightning
Maurice Bolden
Jaylen Babb-Harrison
Marcus Capers
Anthony Gaines Jr.
Xavier Moon
Kevin Ware Jr.
Garrett Williamson
